Is Your Business "In The Cloud"?
Posted by Len Diana on Wed, Jun 15, 2011 @ 03:58 PM
So you think there are days when either your head or your employee’s head or your customer’s head are in the cloud but should your business be? You may have seen recently that Apple is launching a cloud application. CNBC has a special report on the cloud. You can check out their special report here http://www.cnbc.com/id/42991270/
So what’s the big deal and is it worth having your business applications cloud based? If you’re a small business or medium sized business with most of your employees in the office you probably don’t need it. Funny thing is you’re probably already using cloud applications but never thought about it. Are you using Gmail, Hotmail, AOL mail, Facebook, Twitter, Salesforce and other types of services? Well, you’ve been in the cloud : ) There’s a lot of talk how it’s the wave of the future but I was at a conference recently that said only 10% of IT spending in 2013 will be cloud based worldwide!! And there have been some issues with some of these services. Google email outages, Amazon’s EC2 cloud service, and Sony’s Playstation Network and Qriocity have shown some of the inherent dangers of being in the cloud. Confidence that data stored in the cloud will be handled securely, reliably, and in compliance with various regulations are all issues that need to be addressed. As this is becoming more popular are we just targets for hackers? As some businesses use vendors to handle tasks such as storage and database management, they’re lowering the costs of technology and personnel. By ceding control to a cloud provider, businesses might be ignoring corporate best practices and risk management policies. There’s a lot more to discuss so we’ll pick up on this topic real soon.
